Navigating the system

I found myself downtown with an hour before a scheduled meeting and decided to put it to good use. There was a social security office near my meeting and I need to find out what to do about getting Maggie into the system. Maggie will be 18 in about six weeks and I have to figure this stuff out. My attempts to do this online or on the phone were spectacular failures. I needed face time to get questions answered. There was the office, I had a crossword puzzle, a pen and an hour.


 I didn't need the crossword for a distraction though. The waiting room was hilarious. The office I went to is on the edge of the financial district right near Chinatown. I may have been the only English speaker in the room. The best part was the guy whose job it was to scream out the numbers in Chinese after the clerk called them out in English. Half the time he would just scream it in English instead of Chinese and everyone would look at him blankly. It was the theater of the absurd. Navigating this system is difficult in English. I cannot imagine trying to do it in another language.

This was the sign that greeted me at the front door. I knew navigating was hard, but generally that doesn't mean actually getting to the office.  I should have known then.

It was actually a  productive hour. When the eventually called my name, the information was helpful. We have to come back after Maggie's 18th birthday and they will make a determination then whether or not she qualifies as disabled. I'm honestly not going to sweat out the outcome of thier decision too much.  

Best of all I get to go back WITH Maggie.  That will take the theatrics to a whole new level.